New table complete

[bigslickwood]

Here's the table I finally finished. Started messing around with these inlays about 2 years ago, they sat in a box until we got this shop up and running about a month ago. Although I bought the shopbot about 3 years ago with the intention of building tables, this is the first one I've finished since I bought it. It's not perfect, I wish the rail were wider and the racetrack thinner, but that's how it worked with the inlays (damn I need more practice at rails, too.)

The inlays are walnut, mahogany, sapelle, and a little pine, inlaid into the birch plywood. There are 10 inlays total, the 4 wanted posters, and then the 3 round ones are repeated at each end of the table. The chip drawer and cup holder slideouts are glued up from strips of walnut and oak. The chip drawer might be my favorite feature, first time I've built box joints and used the dowel joinery. Bought the pedestal, but inlaid the card suits into the stretcher using wenge and padauk.


The finish is a 3 step process where you stain the oak with a golden pecan stain, put down a coat of shellac, and then wipe on a dark walnut gel stain, which you then immediately wipe off. The dark stain basically just stays in the grain and any cracks in the inlays. This gives the inlays a little more antiquey look and really makes the grain pop on the oak.

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc50/5rowleys/IMG_0432.jpg
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http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc50/5rowleys/IMG_0427.jpg

[MsprinM]

Dude that is awesome

[Dr Lecterr]

That is one spectacular table!!

[Irish]

Great table, I really like the detail work in the chip tray and cup holder pull outs.

[doughboy63]

Great table, I really like the detail work in the chip tray and cup holder pull outs.

x2

Especially the 2 tone chip trays.

How easy do the inlays become when using the cnc?

[pie taster]

awesome dude.

can i get more details on those cup holders? More pics or a drawing?

[j p frog]

great table! sweet inlay/shopbot work. Detail the chip drawer as to method please.

[morningwood]

That is a sick, sick table. Everything, the two tone chip tray, suited stretcher, detailed wanted posters, are artistic individually but collectively it comes together nicely.

I think if you put some of the leaf/vine work you have on the chip tray or cup holders onto the track (only a little bit), it would have complimented the track even more. Or would it be too much? Doesn't matter...Hellava table.

[bigslickwood]

Thanks guys!

The inlays are certainly easier on the shopbot (in fact impossible without it, at least for me) but still a major pain in the ass. I did some card suit inlays one time by hand (scroll saw, template and router) but they looked like ass comparatively. The big problem is the size of the pieces. I ended up cutting these with a 1/32" bit, so hogging out the pockets takes forever. Then when cutting the male pieces you have to worry about holding them in place. I basically lay down a mat of doublesided tape and then put my 1/8" thick wood on top. If they don't stick well enough they get lost or trashed (either from the spinning bit, or the massive amount of air blowing around) if they stick too well, you'll break them trying to get them off the tape. The software is key to making everything fit. I use a program called Artcam which automatically figures radiuses for inside/outside corners and you can dial in the tolerances for how tight the fit of the pieces are. I cut the pieces into the baltic birch, and then laid the baltic birch into the oak ply. I'm not crazy about this as getting all the depths correct is tough and sanding them on the ply is very unforgiving as you can sand through the veneer on the ply easily (in fact on this one I did in several places, fortunately it just helps add to the worn western theme on this particular table). The alternative is trying to do your inlays directly into the table surface, but if you screw it up, you're starting over completely instead of just replacing a single inlay.

The cupholder drawers are 2 oak and 1 walnut 1x2's which were jointed, glued up, and then planed to 1/2" thick. Built a jig to hold them in place on the CNC and it cut the vines/leaves and the cup holes. On the bottom of the table is oak 1x3's which I routed a half inch wide x half inch deep groove in. I then routed a 1/4 inch groove through the center of the half inch groove, but only part of the length of the board. These then get screwed to the bottom of the table. The cup drawer rides smoothly in the 1/2" groove, and a dowel mounted in the end of the drawer rides in the 1/4" groove to stop the drawer from pulling out too far. Two of the cup drawers are a little too close together, I spaced them at the midpoint between each inlay, but the two on the straightaway side end up too close that way. Next time I'll move them out a bit as there is way more room around the corners.

The chip drawer was done essentially the same way. I used 1x3's to frame the outside of the drawer. Made box joints at the back corners using the router table and an incra jig. Routed a 1/2" groove in the side pieces. The entire tray is also the bottom of the drawer. I jointed/cut/glued the strips of oak and walnut together and then planed it to one inch thick (this was one big solid chunk of wood, 21"x13"x1"). Used the router to cut tongues into the ends to hold it in the corresponding grooves on the side pieces. Then used the CNC to cut the card slots, scroll work and the chip grooves. Used the big 1-5/8" ball bit, which really bogs down if you try to go too deep. Even with the CNC and 3-1/2hp router, I had it do about 6 passes to go all the way down. slide the tray into the frame, and then I used a Miller dowel system (tapered shaped dowels with a special bit) to mount the front piece to the sides of the drawer. Just used a standard drawer slide to mount it to the bottom of the table.

It's pretty fun, and now I have the bug to start another one. I have a guy who wants a Seahawks themed table, and I'm thinking about that and getting it drawn up in the software. Got a couple of cool ideas if the guy's willing to pay for them.

[Quads]

That chip drawer gives me a serious hard on.

[mikeyinsd]

Very nice! Mikey Likey!

[Guma]

That chip tray is absolutely sick looking! Not to mention that is one BAD ASS table too!

Now it just needs some custom chips to go with it...:)

[Wedge Rock]

x3 or x4 or where ever we are now on that chip tray... Nice work.

[bigslickwood]

Now it just needs some custom chips to go with it...:)

I've been thinking the same thing (hence all the custom chip questions), however not sure yet if I'm going to keep this table or sell it. I've got quite a bit into it, so would like to recoup some of that, but I also will have a hard time giving this one up (and I don't currently have one of my own, I left my old table with the boys in Boise when we moved).

[j p frog]

when you glued the chip drawer up....it appears that you did it end grain to end grain. Did you put a biscuit below the level of the routered out chip channel? if not, what exactly did you do to join the pieces together to give a strong single piece at the end of the process? thanks!

[Guma]

I just noticed the Inlay work on the spreader bar between the pedestals. The suits are actually shaped and beveled and not flush with the spreader bar.A detail I had not seen before and something else that really sets this table apart as a true piece of craftsmanship.

Said it once, but I will say it again, Awesome table!

[pond007]

Love all the extra stuff, but how wide is that racetrack. That's the only thing that kills it for me.

[JCinPA]

That chip drawer gives me a serious hard on.

Boy, you sure do get hard ons easily! Table pr0n. Chip pr0n. Bacon pr0n. And of course, pr0n pr0n. ;)

That is a seriously awesome table. That's an heirloom your great-great-grandkids will enjoy.

[bigslickwood]

Sorry, hadn't noticed the bump on this thread.

JP, no biscuits (a biscuit joiner's on my list of 'tools I'd like'), just a lot of glue and clamps. I hope that since the glue up is oriented in the opposite direction of the grooves that it will be OK. It's possible it could break, but I don't think it will.

Guma, yeah the card suits are 3D and shaped out of 1/4" padauk and wenge (again the Shopbot does all the hard work). The top 1/8" or so is shaped and sits proud of the surface, then 1/8" or so is flat and is inlaid in the stretcher. It's a small thing, but one of my favorite features on the table, matching ones are on the other side of the stretcher, too.

Pond, yeah, the racetrack is really wide. This was a case where I started messing around with the inlays, and THEN decided to turn them into a poker table. It's not ideal, but still seems to play OK since the center is flush. I have plans for a Seahawks themed table that I have all drawn up and then the guy backed out where the track is much more realistically sized.

JC, I may end up hanging onto this table. It's currently on consignment at a local high-end billiards and spa place, but by the time I get what I want out of it, and they get their cut, I'm not sure anyone is looking for a $4K poker table right now...